Cat got spooked and attacked me

Atomic Pineapple

Hi,

We have a 5 year old cat, we found her in the engine of our car as a very young kitten. Since then she's always been an indoor cat and never interacted with other animals.

She has been a great company and has such a interesting little personality. I love her to bits.

We've had a couple of times when she's gotten a bit spooked and been a bit vicious though, it's always been when something has freaked her out and it's always been a bit concerning.

However tonight i fell over a cushion trying to catch her and she ended up trapped between me and her exit, she jumped on my back and attacked me pretty severely, i knocked her off but ever since when i go near her she howls and hisses and swipes at me.

We've never owned a cat before but i assume that even when spooked a cat shouldn't be attacking like this and that i have to face the fact that she is unsafe to have as a pet and contact a vet to have her out down?

LeinsterDub

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Hi,

We have a 5 year old cat, we found her in the engine of our car as a very young kitten. Since then she's always been an indoor cat and never interacted with other animals.

She has been a great company and has such a interesting little personality. I love her to bits.

We've had a couple of times when she's gotten a bit spooked and been a bit vicious though, it's always been when something has freaked her out and it's always been a bit concerning.

However tonight i fell over a cushion trying to catch her and she ended up trapped between me and her exit, she jumped on my back and attacked me pretty severely, i knocked her off but ever since when i go near her she howls and hisses and swipes at me.

We've never owned a cat before but i assume that even when spooked a cat shouldn't be attacking like this and that i have to face the fact that she is unsafe to have as a pet and contact a vet to have her out down?

What do mean attacked if you're prone on the ground and she jumps on your back her natural reaction will be latch on with her claws when you attempt to move especially when panicked

Atomic Pineapple

She jumped on my back and dug her claws into me several times leaving me with several deep cuts. I didn't move at all until she started attacking me.

Then when i got her off she continued to try to attack me.

She is still now even two hours later ready to attack me if i go near her.

Latatian

In her tiny cat brain you 'attacked' her and she got spooked. They are not the brightest animals when frightened- but then neither are we often.

Try just winning back her trust. Leave her alone for a while, don't talk to or look at her, and see if she comes around.

ainecaine

Your are correct, your cat got spooked and really scared. It can take hours or even days for cats to calm down sometimes.
Leave her alone and don't try to approach. She will come back to you meowing and looking for food when she gets hungry. Wait for her to approach you.
I have a cat that we git at too young an age too and she can be very unsocial. She also goes missing when she gets scared, sometimes for days. But she comes back eventually, for food.

Please don't put her down for this, rather help to work around her problems

Atomic Pineapple

The thing is she's been aggressive before, once i brought a lost kitten into the house and she attacked my leg trying to get at it, she left a very severe scar on my a leg, my fiancée once closed the window beside her and she kept jumping at her until i got home, i came running down the stairs in the dark one night and she started attacking me with very Little provocation. And tonight was a very scary event and my fiancée​ is not happy. I have pretty severe cuts to my arm and back and see even cut my ear.

I don't want to put her down, when she's not like this she's an incredible cat but we will be starting a family soon and there's no way she'll be safe with a baby in the house.

Do we have other options? Is there a way to help her aggression in these situations?

By the way when i say indoor cat i mean 100% indoor, she doesn't go outside at all, when we open the door to outside she is too afraid to go outside.

Graces7

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

The thing is she's been aggressive before, once i brought a lost kitten into the house and she attacked my leg trying to get at it, she left a very severe scar on my a leg, my fiancée once closed the window beside her and she kept jumping at her until i got home, i came running down the stairs in the dark one night and she started attacking me with very Little provocation. And tonight was a very scary event and my fiancée​ is not happy. I have pretty severe cuts to my arm and back and see even cut my ear.

I don't want to put her down, when she's not like this she's an incredible cat but we will be starting a family soon and there's no way she'll be safe with a baby in the house.

Do we have other options? Is there a way to help her aggression in these situations?

By the way when i say indoor cat i mean 100% indoor, she doesn't go outside at all, when we open the door to outside she is too afraid to go outside.

Hard one. She sounds at base a feral? Even after all these years?

Flibble

I know very little about cats except for watching Jackson Galaxy shows on YouTube, but your situation struck me very much as similar to the types of issues he deals with. Maybe yourself & your fiance should watch a few of them & try some of his approaches?

It sounds like your cat is often on high alert & is quite insecure in her surroundings, and simple fixes might need to be implemented such as giving her a few high-up places to sit & reassessing how ye interact with her.

njs030

Just out of interest why were you trying to catch her?
All the situations you've described sound like scary ones, a loud bang of a window closing beside her. You running down the stairs at night and you trying to catch her and falling.
For any nervous animal (or person) they would trigger a fight or flight instinct.

Atomic Pineapple

I was trying to catch her because she gets to sit in the living room only when we are there, we were going to bed for the night so i was going to get her to take her out.

All the situations were ones where we entirely understand why she became aggressive, but after 5 years with us I'd have thought she'd have some sort of understanding not to attack us.

Like i said we never had cats before and never intended to have one but we took her in and apart from the aggression she's been a great cat. Because we've never had cats we're confused with her aggression, we assume it's not normal for other cats to be so aggressive even in situations where they are scared?

Feral is a really good way to describe her when she's aggressive.

We will check out the YouTube videos to see if there's anything in there that can help.

doolox

..Also there was a recent case of a neighbour suing a cat owner for an attack on her which cost the cat owner several thousand euros in settlement.

Be prepared for the dreaded visit to the vet if things don't improve.

I worked in a factory long ago which has a warehouse attached to it with several feral cats in residence. They were the source of much mirth and merriment until a warehouse worker was nearly killed in a fall from a high reach forklift when attacked by one of the cats.

The cats were "disappeared" within days of the incident.

Atomic Pineapple

The thing is though as a kitten she never showed any feral qualities, she was fine with being handled, loved attention and was a proper pet, she still is apart from these incidents when she gets really spooked.

Can a cats claws be removed? She done serious damage to me with her claws, if she didn't have them there'd be no issue when she got spooked, it feels like a stupid question but I'd try anything to avoid putting her down.

Also i assume a vet will put her down based on her attacking us even though she is a healthy cat?

SillyMangoX

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

The thing is though as a kitten she never showed any feral qualities, she was fine with being handled, loved attention and was a proper pet, she still is apart from these incidents when she gets really spooked.

Can a cats claws be removed? She done serious damage to me with her claws, if she didn't have them there'd be no issue when she got spooked, it feels like a stupid question but I'd try anything to avoid putting her down.

Also i assume a vet will put her down based on her attacking us even though she is a healthy cat?

You can't declaw cats here in Ireland and in reality it would likely make her more aggressive as they are usually left with long term pain and arthritis as it affects how they walk, basically like cutting off your fingers at the top knuckle. If she's good in general to be handled though you can get claw caps, a little rubber cap that you glue on the nails to stop scratching. (Only to be used in 100% indoor cats as it essentially takes away their defences)

Honestly OP I know how scary it is to be attacked by a cat, I have several scars from attacks from my own. But your cat sounds like one who is terrified, not aggressive. Cats have the unfortunate mindset of being both predator and prey so their fight and flight response is very heightened. All these attack situations sounds like ones where she has been very frightened and thinks, oh god I could have been killed, I better attack back.

Work on keeping her calm, get out excess energy with toys where she can "kill", the Da Bird toy is utterly fantastic for that, as shs indoors she probably doesn't get to exercise her predator mind. Also something like feliway or pet remedy diffusers are great to help them chill.
Has she tall scratching posts or much high space where she can get to?

njs030

Perhaps your best option might be to keep her out of the sitting room altogether then.
Cats don't understand rules like being allowed in when you're there only.

Rather than putting a healthy cat to sleep I'd suggest handing her into rescue where she may have a chance at rehoming....its always a shame when animals are killed when another home may suit them. The vet may ask to do that anyway.

Atomic Pineapple

Are there good re homing centres for cats akin to dogs trust? I'd fear she would attack other cats or animals if she was just put in a centre that would lump her in with other cat's. If she sees another cat outside the house she howls and hisses through the windows.

We've got good advice here and the initial shock has worn off and we're getting an understanding of what we might be doing wrong with her so hopefully over the next couple of months we can improve thing's and avoid the worst case outcome.

njs030

There's plenty of rescues that deal with cats and would know how to look after her.

Graces7

Flibble wrote: »

I know very little about cats except for watching Jackson Galaxy shows on YouTube, but your situation struck me very much as similar to the types of issues he deals with. Maybe yourself & your fiance should watch a few of them & try some of his approaches?

It sounds like your cat is often on high alert & is quite insecure in her surroundings, and simple fixes might need to be implemented such as giving her a few high-up places to sit & reassessing how ye interact with her.

I saw that programme and was amazed at the difference something as simple as making a high perch for an appallingly aggressive cat made to its behaviour.

OP please watch and try that? See how totally hostile that cat was.

Graces7

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

I was trying to catch her because she gets to sit in the living room only when we are there, we were going to bed for the night so i was going to get her to take her out.

All the situations were ones where we entirely understand why she became aggressive, but after 5 years with us I'd have thought she'd have some sort of understanding not to attack us.

Like i said we never had cats before and never intended to have one but we took her in and apart from the aggression she's been a great cat. Because we've never had cats we're confused with her aggression, we assume it's not normal for other cats to be so aggressive even in situations where they are scared?

Feral is a really good way to describe her when she's aggressive.

We will check out the YouTube videos to see if there's anything in there that can help.

I took in a feral who had had kittens, which the rescue rehomed, and who was still full of milk and hormones,

When that wore off? She nearly took my hand off when I offered her food and even after a year and more I could hardly get near her. It is a genetic as well as environmental factor.

Is she by the way spayed?

Gaoth Laidir

Unfortunately in a case like this the problem is usually with the human giving off negative signals that the cat picks up. Cats communicate through body language (position of whiskers, ears, tail, etc.). From her point of view she saw a great big human coming at her in a way that seemed threatening to her cat instinct. I know that's not how you see it (or how it is) but for her she's picking up that signal.

Try to take a smaller physical stature in her eyes. Cats make themselves big when in a defensive mode (they turn their body sideways and extend their fur in order to look as big as possible to their "enemy"). Turn sideways to make yourself narrower, hunk down but most importantly, slow blink your eyes at her. This is a show of relaxation and contentment to a cat and means "I feel relaxed with you". I do it all the time to strays that come here and the response I get is a slow blink back and a general relaxation of their body language. They settle down into that cat pose on all fours and close their eyes. Also maybe try lying belly up on the ground. When a cat does that and rolls over it means they trust you and are not afraid to expose their vital organs (tummy, heart, etc.) to you.

Try it. I'm not mad. You'll see a difference, but only if you're totally relaxed yourself.

Zapperzy

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Are there good re homing centres for cats akin to dogs trust? I'd fear she would attack other cats or animals if she was just put in a centre that would lump her in with other cat's. If she sees another cat outside the house she howls and hisses through the windows.

We've got good advice here and the initial shock has worn off and we're getting an understanding of what we might be doing wrong with her so hopefully over the next couple of months we can improve thing's and avoid the worst case outcome.

There's plenty of good rehoming centres in the country but unfortunately coming into kitten season in a country overrun with cats the outcome would not be good. With a choice of all shapes, sizes and colours of kittens, older cats, especially one with behavioural issues like you describe (would require a cat and kid free home) are very hard to rehome. She wouldn't be at risk of being put to sleep but unless they placed her into a foster home she'd be confined to a cage or pen until rehomed which may take months.

SillyMangoX mentioned the claw caps, I'v tried these and found them good. You'd have to be able to handle her feet and clip her claws though. Have you ever tried clipping her claws?

There's plenty of calming diffusers, sprays and food additives available for stressed cats with behaviour issues. The two iv tried are feliway plug in diffusers and zylkene capsules. I'm currently using a form of feliway for multi cat households with great results, the standard feliway is what you would need.

I'd be looking at environmental enrichment too, life is fairly boring for indoor cats, I'v got two of them. Couple of bird feeders outside a window, look up cat TV on youtube mine sit for hours staring at the tv watching birds and squirrels, cat trees, shelves and more toys.

mymo

Bed time tip, we don't feed any of our cats after 4 or 5 pm, then when it gets near bed time we call them all and they come in for a feed of wet food before bed. They know the routine and will make their way to bed once fed.
You could try a special bedtime treat or feed before bed in whichever room you want her to sleep in.
We tap the food pack as a way to call them all, and dish it up where we want them.

Dyr

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Can a cats claws be removed? She done serious damage to me with her claws, if she didn't have them there'd be no issue when she got spooked, it feels like a stupid question but I'd try anything to avoid putting her down.

Sounds nasty, How many stitches did you need?

kathleen37

Definitely, definitely she needs somewhere high up where she feels safe.

And i'd also suggest a behaviourist to have a look at her. It seems like she's really scared.

We took a really aggressive cat after one of the neighbours died. She's a biter - but - she had not one tooth left in her head which is why we've been able to take her. She actually lives in the house now - and we don't engage with her at all. It's been over a year of completely ignoring her - and she's quite old now which is why she's in since the weather got bad.

She's much, much less aggressive now - is even getting somewhat affectionate; coming up, head butting if she wants a stoke but will still give me a swipe and gum me if I try to stroke her and she's not up for it.

It makes me wonder about your cat though. This girl, Tiger Lily, will absolutely bite, and bite hard (we call her gummer when she does it) as well as the claws. If your girl isn't biting, and I do know how much damage claws can do, then I think that's a good thing and she's recognising you but is just so scared the claws are coming out. I'm sure you already know, but when a cat attacks with claws, the absolute worse thing you can do is pull away. It causes worse damage than not panicking, gritting your teeth and removing claws yourself.

Declawing is horrific and I think and hope illegal here. I would never, never consider it for any cat.

As you've had her for so long, and you have a baby coming (which I'm sure she will show no interest in) then you really need to get this sorted. Whilst I love Jackson Galaxy, think he' fab, and watching his video's will be great as an illustration as to what can be done to help scared/aggressive cats, you're really not going to sort this by watching video's on the internet.

Please, take the time to research and get someone with good reviews/recommendations to come and look at her, and hopefully you will all be much, much happier.

Good luck - keep us updated.

Atomic Pineapple

Yes she is spayed.

The claw covers would be a good solution but we've never clipped her claws and while she lets us handle her I'm not sure how easy it would be to put them on every 6 weeks.

We do use Feliway diffuser already but only on one floor or a 3 floor house, should there be one on each floor?

Luckily I don't think I need any stitches. She got my back and right arm the worse and my clothes protected me a little.

We don't have a baby on the way right now so we do have time to try and sort it out, even today with the great info we've got here we've been able to watch and learn from her body language much more.

maggiepip

http://m.zooplus.de/shop/katzen/kratzbaum_katzenbaum/kratzbaeume_alle_produkte/kratzbaeume_alle_produkte_gross/490817

As Kathleen said your cat needs somewhere high up, the higher the better to feel safe. Fear and anxiety are the main problems.
The above link is the exact tree I bought for my extremely highly strung nervous wreck of a rescue cat.

It was life changing for her. I have it years at this stage and she made such social progress because of this tree.

It gave her a safe place to go while also being in our company , and gives a place to observe whats going on and learn. She started to interact more and more with us, because she knew if something scared her she could just run back up her tree. It gave her so much confidence. Shes basically a normal cat now and I thank the tree for it! The one rule we had and still have is that nobody ever goes near her when shes in the tree, or tries to take her out of it.

Shivi111

One of our cats is a very jumpy lady, as is her sister who my sister owns. We've had a few scratches in the early days but have worked with her on better behaviour and worked on how we interact with her.

Firstly, our other two can be picked up at any time, be petted without warning and generally put up with whatever human nonsense we try ... but not Loki.
Loki likes to rub up against our feet but most of the time reaching down to pet her is a no-no unless she clearly sees you coming, no surprises as they spook her.

When it is absolutely nessecary to move her (i.e. Vet visits) we make sure she sees us coming, and pick her up slowly & gently - again no surprises, we limit these interactions to absolutely necessary times, and employ a towel or something if she's jumpy. When she's unnerved (swishing tail, low growl, big eyes) we back off until she's calm again, even if we're in a hurry. Cats mostly give you loads of warnings before they attack as their first instinct is to run away, you have to look for signs.

Play is hugely important, Loki is allowed outdoors which burns off a lot of energy, but she still needs lots of active play (those feathers on a stick are great) this has the added bonus of improving her bond with us.

We don't allow cats in bedrooms, so I get having no access rooms but wonder why the living room? If the issue is scratching furniture then a few good quality cat trees will sort it, if the living room is off bounds then I'd suggest making it permanently off bounds, cats are territorial so cutting off access to territory is probably stressing her out.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, you need levels for her to run to when stressed, cat trees, cat shelves are good options and will make her feel more secure.

If you are feeling adventurous you could work on some basic training, all of my cats will sit, give paw, turn around and give high fives for treats, it's actually really easy to teach them and is good for building trust, also helpful as a way to get them to come to you when you need to pick them up.

Aside from all of the above, there are behaviourists who can help, and then rehoming and rescues, so having her PTS is hopefully a long way down the list.

I'd be happy to chat about any of the above if any questions on training etc.

Good luck!

Ms Doubtfire1

You're dealing with a cat here that came to you in a car engine. You've no idea if she had any socialization in her kitten time at all.How old was she when she was found?
Cats also have a long memory.You scared the hell out of her, it will take some time for her to calm down. Just leave her be, ignore her she'll come round.Re catching her, not a good idea at all.Rather than trying to catch her and bring her out of the living room, go to the room you want her in and call her from there - preferable with her favorite bit off food. (open a can, rattle some kibble or - works a treat for my semi's - tear open some cold chicken breast).She'll learn very quick that she gets a treat when it's bed time if she leaves her living room.

Graces7

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

You're dealing with a cat here that came to you in a car engine. You've no idea if she had any socialization in her kitten time at all.How old was she when she was found?
Cats also have a long memory.You scared the hell out of her, it will take some time for her to calm down. Just leave her be, ignore her she'll come round.Re catching her, not a good idea at all.Rather than trying to catch her and bring her out of the living room, go to the room you want her in and call her from there - preferable with her favorite bit off food. (open a can, rattle some kibble or - works a treat for my semi's - tear open some cold chicken breast).She'll learn very quick that she gets a treat when it's bed time if she leaves her living room.

Wise words. I have found with ferals that the socialisation is skin deep. When t comes to a problem situation? They revert fast and for a long while.

I joined a US online forum with a specialist feral cat section and learned so much.
Utter patience the main thing and that deep down however affectionate they are? My outdoor feral was so tame. Was on the doorstep when I came in, if i sat out he was on my lap...

But he could and did suddenly lash out if anything crossed him even after 4 years of constant care.

Same with the little girl. She had the meanest, fastest left hook... but such a sweet girl.

You just cannot fully trust them as you can a home reared pet from pets; they live on their terms. The art is to learn those terms and respect them.

Deeply rewarding in a very different way.

Atomic Pineapple

She was only 5 - 7 weeks old when we found her, as a kitten she was extremely social with us, she would lie and fall asleep on us, as she became older she has stopped that completely but she is still very social, she will cry for us to pet her, rub up against us for attention, stand on her hind legs with her head up to us looking for a rub.

We have started monitoring her behaviour a lot more over the past few days though and given the advice on body language etc given here we have noticed she does show signs of nervousness a lot even with minor noises in the house.

We bought her a 3 level tower which is quite high, cleared off a shelf she climbs onto and have put treats on them to encourage her to go to the higher places, we've also got her new food she seems to love and will use that at night. We've decided to completely stop lifting her altogether unless absolutely necessary. So hopefully we will see her becoming less nervous around the house.

Also just in case its important she's a blue british as far we can tell.

Ms Doubtfire1

The signs of nervousness to me seems to be the feral coming into play. I think in your latest post you've taken all the advise to heart and i do think you shouldn't have any more problems. Keep doing what you're doing in the latest post - and thank you for caring .:-)

Graces7

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

The signs of nervousness to me seems to be the feral coming into play. I think in your latest post you've taken all the advise to heart and i do think you shouldn't have any more problems. Keep doing what you're doing in the latest post - and thank you for caring .:-)

Amen to this and yes well done indeed. I was shocked at the ways the feral just kept on surfacing... One Irish web site on ferals says that after two generations ferals are "hard wired" to feed and breed... I can see that fully now.

My little girl hid under my bed for weeks and would ferociously attack my ankles when I got in and out of bed.. I blocked that area off

Food comes before affection clearly...;) Never mind the giver.. just the food..